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When the first economic stimulus package was awarded, I said then that $600 wasn’t going to get much done and I was right.People paid their light bill or credit card bill with it. They didn’t buy new t.v.s, computers or cars.

When they voted the $700 Billion dollar financial institution bailout, I was also skeptical of it’s effectiveness and I’m right — it’s not effective. The banks that were given the money have frittered it away on office renovations and other inconsequential things — they have NOT recycled the money into the economy in the form of loans to consumers.

Credit card companies have taken the opportunity to hike interest rates and lower credit lines on all holders of credit cards regardless of your history of payment. And they send their holders demeaning letters placing the blame of these hikes on the card holders.

I have said all along that the government programs need to target where the collapse began which is in the housing market and specifically mortgages. Let the bankers and financial institutions who developed and planned and cheated people out of their money reap the benefits of their labors. But don’t let the people who were led astray, who believed and WANTED to believe that they could own a home be punished.

Help them keep their property, help builders and contractors keep their businesses afloat and allow the market to adjust to lower prices is the only way we will keep our economy going.

It seems so wrong to have the stock market determine if our economy is healthy or sick.

We have all seen and heard how easily Wall Street is swayed to believe in both fairy tales as well as prognostications of doom.

The current stimulus package before congress is equally fraught with ineffective and wasteful spending. If America is having to swallow the diet pills of  losing jobs, seeing their retirement funds dwindle and losing their homes, while continuing to watch the government give their tax money to the automakers, investment brokerages and insurance companies, then why can’t we demand to have a larger voice in what this new money is going to be used for?

Let’s look at what our money has already accomplished.

Did giving money to GM create any jobs?

No.

In fact, it is going to result in job losses as GM reorganizes and lays off more workers and closes plants. Instead of forcing the unions to accept a reduction of benefits and redrawing of it’s contract demands, they were not touched. Is it better to work 32 hours a week at $12 per hour or be on unemployment with no job at all?

Is upping the interest rate on credit cards going to result in fewer defaults?

No.

In fact, it’s going to increase them as people are faced with the choice of keeping a roof over their head or paying the higher payment on their credit card.

Why can’t banks see that?

And they aren’t jumping interest rates by 1 or 2 percent either! It’s by 10-15 percent. People who were struggling before are going to just give up now and then the bank will be getting $0 instead of that $15 per month they were getting. They will also incur the costs of collections and litigation to get that money as well.

So those big banks that got all the billions of dollars used that to buy up smaller banks and redecorate rather than using it to help their customers by instituting counseling services, reducing interest rates and working with people to keep them out of default.

Where are we getting all this money from?

If the treasury isn’t printing new money (and they aren’t), then where exactly are all these billions and trilions of dollars coming from? We used to boorrow from China, but even that country is in financial melt down. And even more importantly, how are we going to pay it back?

So for me, Mr. Obama’s first days in office have done little to answer my questions or alleviate my fears. I know the problems he faces are not simple ones to solve, but more of the same that already has not worked is still not going to work.

You need to find new advisors who can think out of the box.

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